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Bio

At MSU, Prof. Huang’s main responsibilities include research, extension, and teaching. He is known for developing the social inhibition model (at UIUC) which explains how nurse to forager transition is regulated, the mitezapper which is a non-chemical control for the infamous Varroa destructor, his cyberbee.net (started in 1997 but developed mainly at MSU) for extension, and award winning photographs. He was awarded the J.I. Hambleton Award for Outstanding Research by the Eastern Apicultural Society of North American Inc. August 2008. One honey bee scientist in North America is awarded each year and previous awardees include Prof. Gene Robinson, Member of the National of Sciences and Swanlund Chair at UIUC and Prof. Thomas Seeley, Chair of Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University.

Teaching

Spring of odd years: Insect Macrophotography which includes basics of macro photography, focus stacking and ultraviolet and infrared photography.

Fall of even years: Social Insect Biology which will cover biology of bees, ants, wasps and termites and the hot topics in social insect biology.

Research

My lab focuses how stresses affect honey bees. Stresses include parasites (mites), pathogens (Nosema), insecticides (neonictinoids), temperature and transportation. Our most recent results During the last five years my research program has focused on reproductive biology of Varroa destructor (varroa mites) and a fungal pathogen of honey bees (Nosema ceranae). We gained much understanding of whether and why varroa mites prefer younger workers (nurses) in more realistic colony conditions. Prior studies on host preference by this parasite has only used Petri-dishes and cages and not in colony settings. With Nosema ceranae, we have found that infection methods can cause a difference in worker mortality in cage studies, and mixed infection of two species of Nosema (N. ceranae and N. apis) are more deadly to caged honey bees, and these effects are also seen in colony settings.

Extension

My extension program is aimed to provide the newest research update on how stresses affect honey bees. These include research conducted in my lab: varroa biology, nosema effect on honey bees, how transportation affect honey bees, whether transgenic pollen affect honey bee health; as well as research conducted by other scientists (how nutrition affect honey bee stress resistance, varroa mite reproductive biology, etc). I also coordinate with Michigan Department of Agriculture to obtain emergency registrations (section 18) for new chemicals for treating varroa mites.

Professional Experience

2004-Present - Associate Professor, Dept. of Entomology, Michigan State University

1998-2004 - Assistant Professor, Dept. of Entomology, Michigan State University

1993-1998 - Senior Research Scientist, Dept. of Entomology, UIUC

1990-1993 - Postdoctoral Fellowship, Department of Entomology, UIUC

1988-1990 - Postdoctoral Fellowship, Department of Entomology, University of Missouri-Columbia